Dicentra
cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches
Photo by cj
Dicentra
cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches
potted plants are ONLY
AVAILABLE IN SPRING
$6.00 each plus
boxing/shipping.
Please contact us by email
with your zip code and number of plants for availability and shipping charges on Dutchman's Breeches potted
plants and other native wildflowers.

Dutchman's
Breeches is a small graceful native wildflower with fern like foliage and
unusual flowers that bloom during March - May. Dutchman's Breeches is a
common wildflower of moist woods and wooded
valleys throughout the Ozarks. Dutchman's Breeches potted plants are
only available in the spring. Plants go dormant in late spring or early
summer.

Dutchman's
breeches is an easily recognized native wildflower of early spring, and typically occurs on forest floors, rocky woods, slopes, ledges,
valleys, ravines and along streams throughout the Midwest and Eastern US.
Dutchman's Breeches has deeply-cut, fern-like, grayish-green foliage and racemes of waxy, white
(infrequently tinged with pink), yellow-tipped flowers shaped like pantaloons
with the ankles upward (hence the common name). Flowers are borne in a row
drooping from leafless stems arching above the foliage in early spring. Plants
typically grow to 12" tall, with the flower stems and basal leaves rising
directly from a scaly rootstock. Dutchman's breeches is in the same genus as
bleeding heart.

Dutchman's breeches

Dutchman's
breeches plants are Intolerant of wet soils during winter. Plant in
average to rich, moist to medium wet, well-drained soil in part shade to full shade.
This
is a spring ephemeral which usually goes dormant disappearing from the garden by early summer
(dry soils tend to hasten this process).

Plant Dutchman's Breeches in average to rich soil with plenty of humus in the
woodland wildflower garden or shade garden where it will naturalize with other
native wildflowers. Dutchman's Breeches bloom in early spring and produce
seeds before going dormant in early summer.

The
map below shows areas where native Dicentra
cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches
wildflower plants
grow wild, it can be grown over most of the Midwest and Eastern US. Plant in USDA plant hardiness zones
3 to 9.

Dicentra
cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches

AL
AR
CT
DC
DE
GA
IA
ID
IL
IN
KS
KY

MA
ME
MI
MN
MO

MS
NC
ND
NE
NH
NJ
NY

OH
OK
OR
PA
SC
SD
TN
VA
VT
WA

WI
WV

Please contact us by email with your
address for shipping charges and
availability on Dicentra
cucullaria Dutchman's Breeches potted plants

Dicentra
cucullaria is occasionally confused with D . canadensis (squirrel corn), with which it is
sympatric. It is distinguished from that species by its basally pointed (versus
rounded) outer petal spurs, by its flowers lacking a fragrance, by flowering
7-10 days earlier, and by its pink to white, teardrop-shaped (versus yellow,
pea-shaped) bulblets.

After
fruit set, the bulblets of both Dicentra cucullaria and D . canadensis remain
dormant until fall, when stored starch is converted to sugar. At this time also,
flower buds and leaf primordia are produced below ground; these then remain
dormant until spring (P. G. Risser and G. Cottam 1968; B. J. Kieckhefer 1964; K.
R. Stern 1961). Bumblebees and other long-tongued insects Pollinate both
Dutchman's Breeches and Squirrel Corn.

Flavonoid
components indicate that Dicentra canadensis and D . cucullaria are more closely
related to each other than to any other member of the genus (D. Fahselt 1971).
Even so, species purported to be hybrids between them probably are not. There is
considerable variation in floral morphology within D . cucullaria , which can
have flowers superficially resembling those of D . canadensis . However, when
all characters of the plants are examined, these putative hybrids almost always
are clearly assignable to one species or the other.

The
western populations of Dicentra cucullaria appear to have been separated from
the eastern ones for at least a thousand years. The western plants are generally
somewhat coarser, which apparently led Rydberg to designate the western
populations as a separate species. Plants from the Blue Ridge Mountains of
Virginia, however, are virtually indistinguishable from those of the West, and
much of the variation (which is considerable) within the species probably
involves phenotypic response to the environment, or represents ecotypes within
the species.

The
Iroquois prepared infusions from the roots of Dicentra cucullaria for a
medicinal liniment (D. E. Moerman 1986).

No
serious insect or disease problems. Some susceptibility to aphid infestations.
Good soil drainage is essential for plant survival.